


of mice and wolves

by flusteredkeith (the_silverdoe), the_silverdoe



Series: the juniberry and her blade [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Timeline, Canon Universe, F/M, Gen, Post S7, Some Humor, and cuddles with the space mice, and getting a lil blushy around keith, kosmo bears witness to it all, kosmo is valid, lighthearted fluff, this is basically 2k words of allura softening up to kosmo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 02:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15787464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_silverdoe/pseuds/flusteredkeith, https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_silverdoe/pseuds/the_silverdoe
Summary: It isn't easy, but it takes Allura some time, some mice, and maybe some vaguely flirty teases from Keith for her to start softening up to his space wolf.“Ugh!” she groans, lifting her leg to place her foot at Kosmo’s chest so she can gently-not-so-gently push him away from her chair. “Come here and collect your animal!”“What, right now?” Keith counters, an edge of amusement in his tone. “I’m piloting a lion, Princess.”“You know what I mean!” Allura spits.





	of mice and wolves

**Author's Note:**

> It's been so long since I've fic'd. Basically, breeeliss made a post [here](http://breeeliss.tumblr.com/post/177318977544/keith-im-that-dog-person-kogane-headcanons) and I caught kallura feels. I also mainly wanted to torture Allura by inflicting Kosmo onto her :@)

“I am  _ so _ relieved you four are my travel companions again,” Allura smiles as Chuchule climbs onto her shoulder and nestles into her neck.

Platt and Plachu are running circles around on her dash while Chulatt hangs onto the wisps of hair by her left ear, squeaking cheerfully.

“I know,” she replies to them, letting Chulatt drop down on her other shoulder before putting her helmet on. “I missed you all, too.”

Aside from the mice’s little noises, it is much quieter in her lion given that Romelle and Coran have opted to ride with Hunk and it’s perfect. She needs all the quiet she can get before they make it out to all the different coalition sites on their agenda today. Three years is a long time to have been gone and despite spending her time this morning to prepare her speech, she’s still a little nervous she may accidentally leave something out.

“Almost there,” Allura says as the tiny speck of Olkarion finally comes into view. They’ve already wormholed via Atlas and the new teledav but Hunk had suggested flying the rest of the way via lions so they can arrive in a style more familiar to their old friends.

They’re still a few doboshes away from Olkarion’s atmosphere when the mice start squeaking in different frequencies all at once.

“What’s that?” she asks, straining herself to listen closer. Words like  _ friend! big! flash!  _ and  _ cargo! _ flash through her mind from the mice but she can’t make out a single message.

“I’m sorry, one at a time, please?”

The mice continue to squeak but before she can decipher anything further, she hears a scratching sound at the door of the cockpit.

“What—?”

Allura turns in her seat towards the source of the noise. A flash of light, and then—

She screams.

“Allura, are you okay?” Lance’s voice asks over the comms. Allura can hardly register the question over the ringing between her ears.

When she straightens up in her chair, the first thing she sees is Kosmo’s nose, inches away from her own, twitching as it sniffs the air between them. She always forgets just how big the beast is but as he looms over her chair and paws at her knee, all the blood that rushed to her head from his sudden appearance drains completely.

“K-KEITH!” she exclaims. Without a second thought, Allura reaches behind her and slams at the control panel. She hears the screen pop up and turns around to face the real offender.

“Yeah?” he asks, genuine concern in his voice.

“Your wolf is here again and I need you to—”

At the sound of more scratching, she turns back away from Keith. The wolf is now pawing at the back of her chair, drops of drool dribbling around his teeth.

_ Disgusting! _

“No! Stop that!” she yells, trying but failing to shoo Kosmo away without having to touch him. “Get back!”

“Allura, he’s just trying to have fun,” Keith says —  _ and isn’t that nice? _ she thinks as she turns back to her video call only to see Keith looking ahead and not even paying attention to her screen. While Keith may be perfectly content to allow his beast to roam freely around his lion and scratching or chewing the entire interior up, Allura refuses to stand for this.

“Ugh!” she groans, lifting her leg to place her foot at Kosmo’s chest so she can gently-not-so-gently push him away from her chair. “Come here and collect your animal!”

“What, right now?” Keith counters, an edge of amusement in his tone. “I’m piloting a lion, Princess.”

“You know what I mean!” Allura spits.  “Why is he even here? Can’t you keep an anti-teleportation leash on him? I bet Pidge could build one.”

“He  _ likes _ you,” Keith says matter-of-factly, just as Pidge chimes in, “Hmm, if you give me a week, I should be able to figure it out!”

“Thank you, Pidge,” Allura acknowledges, her foot still at Kosmo’s neck.

“Don’t kick him!” Keith reprimands.  _ Oh, so  _ now _ he’s paying attention to the screen _ .

“I wouldn’t — if you’d just —  _ control your animal! _ ” Allura argues. Despite not wanting to touch Kosmo, she’s now devolved to trying to push the wolf back with her shoulder. The animal feels way too hot and furry for her comfort and his nose and heated breath feels disgusting by her ears.

“Even if Pidge invented a — an anti-teleportation device or whatever — I wouldn’t use it on Kosmo!”

“You are — impossible!” Allura shouts, directing her admonishment at both Keith and his pet as she continues to push against the giant mass leaning over her. As though sensing her discomfort, Kosmo selects this moment to stick his tongue out and assault Allura’s cheeks with a long slobbery lick.

Her eyes squeeze shut, her entire body frozen to the spot as the only thing that settles in her mind is how much her soul wants to leave her body in this moment.

“Augh! Disgusting!” she squeals aloud, backing up immediately and wiping her face against — she looks around the room — what? her armor?

The wet sensation clings to her cheeks; Allura can’t take this anymore. Using the back of her gloves, she wipes the side of her face as best as she can and turns back to Keith.

“Call him back or — something! Anything!” she cries as Kosmo trots back to her chair and hops onto her seat. Allura’s face drains with horror.

“No! Bad! Bad wolf. Bad wolf!” Where is  _ she  _ supposed to sit now?

At this last berating, Kosmo’s ears droop and he lowers his head, letting out a long series of sad, high-pitched whines.

“No — come on,” Keith frowns. “You’re hurting his feelings.”

“Are those pitying sounds supposed to make me feel sorry for you?” she demands at Kosmo.

“He just wants to play with you,” Keith says, exasperated, with the air of explaining that two plus one equals three to a young child. “He probably just wants to cuddle.”

“Cuddle?” Allura backs up further away into the side of her lion and scowls, her fists at her side. “Well, I don’t accept!”

“What’s there to accept?” Keith chuckles, eyes glazing over and looking mawkishly fond as he gazes over at them from the other side of the screen. “Kosmo’s love is given to you for free, no conditions necessary.”

Allura groans. “I’ll never understand you pet lovers.”

“Uhh… Allura?”

“What?” she asks, sharper than she means to.

“You may not have noticed this but… you are a pet owner,” Keith points out, eyes shifting to the mice. In all the commotion, they’ve re-congregated into one pile in the far corner on the dash.

“Yes, well,” Allura huffs, prepared to justify herself. “They aren’t giant beasts that violate your space!”

“Um, excuse me?” comes Lance’s voice suddenly. “I beg to differ! At this point, I think it’s fair for me to say that the mice have done nothing  _ but  _ violate my space! Where do I even begin? First of all, there was that time when one of them fell into my mouth. Second of all—”

“Okay, we get it,” Keith interrupts as Allura adds, “Don’t lie, you  _ love _ the mice!”

“Anyway,” Keith continues after a big eye roll. “Point is, Allura: you’re lumping all pet lovers together and excluding yourself from the nature of your grand, sweeping statements.”

Allura humphs again and looks away. Her heart is beating faster all of a sudden and she’s not sure why, but she does know that Keith’s words somehow jolted her memory back to another time he accused her of lumping an entire group of people together.

It’s strange to feel nostalgic for a disagreement. Just like that, Allura finds herself once again trapped in a small pod with Keith, wilting under the thick apprehension in the stifling air between them. She had thought all Galra were evil once, couldn’t reconcile Keith as  _ friend  _ after learning that her foe’s blood runs in his veins. Her heart swells now as she looks back at Keith on the screen. Regardless of everything that had transpired between them, he had never fallen short of his duty to defend the universe.

They’ve come so far.

Platt dashes over to her and climbs up her arm. Once he reaches her shoulder, he nuzzles his cheek against her helmet.

“Oh, alright,” she concedes with a sigh. “I am a pet owner.”

A soft whine comes out of Kosmo at these words. Allura glares at him.

“Come on, Allura,” Keith urges her. “Just go pet him. He’ll appreciate it.”

Allura remains still, her arms folded up into herself as she shoots Keith a dirty look.

Keith sighs and rolls his eyes again. “Just trust me.”

At these words, something warm rises up in Allura and tugs at her heart.  _ Trust me.  _ After months of living, breathing, and fighting battles together, she really has learned to find comfort in trusting Keith, hasn’t she?

Pursing her lips to show her stubborn disdain (because they’ll have to torture the truth out of her before she ever admits to being willing to pet Kosmo), she approaches the wolf slowly and unfolds her arms.

When she comes to a stop in front of her seat, Platt hops down from her shoulder and onto Kosmo’s head. The mouse slides down on the matted fur around his neck and nuzzles the other animal’s cheek. In response, Kosmo makes a content huff and wags his tail. It isn’t long before the rest of the mice scamper over to join in on the snuggle session.

“Ohhhh my god, what’s happening?” comes Hunk’s voice. “Is Allura cuddling with Kosmo yet? Are the space mice?! Because I hear a lot of squeaking.”

Neither Keith nor Allura respond. Instead, when Allura peeks over at Keith, he gives her a furtive grin and nods.

Tentatively, she reaches out her hand, flinching back just a little when Kosmo raises his head to sniff at it.

“Nice and easy, Allura, he won’t bite,” Keith says.

“I know that,” she shoots back. “I just don’t want drool all over my gloves.”

Her hand hovers over Kosmo, still reluctant and unyielding, when the wolf decides to take matters into his own paws. Dipping his nose, he presses his head up against Allura’s palm, his tail wagging vigorously. By instinct, Allura starts to rub her hand over Kosmo and even brings her other one to scratch beneath his ears. Kosmo pants happily and closes his eyes in contentment.

It’s… endearing.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Keith asks from behind her. “And look. He likes you.”

Allura smiles with her back still turned to Keith. There’s no way she’s letting him see the satisfied expression on her face in this moment. Not a chance.

“Okay, I’m joining this video chat,” Hunk announces, interrupting their moment. “The mice are totally cuddling with Kosmo and I can’t miss this.”

A tick later, Allura hears the sound of a call joining and shifts her face away towards the shadows even more. Just in time, because immediately following, Hunk lets out a gasp of delight and gushes praise and affection over the sight of animals snuggling.

“Okay, Hunk, get your picture in,” Keith drones in a bored voice while Hunk chuckles to himself and starts taking screenshots.

“Aww, I need to show Lance!” he exclaims before tapping out of the video feed, leaving Allura alone with Keith’s screen again.

She hears the beep of Keith pressing a button and realizes he’s shut out the rest of the paladins from the comm.

“You’re enjoying it,” he states. It’s not a question. Allura gulps.

“Maybe a little,” she admits, turning her head to face him. She isn’t able to keep the smile off her face as she continues to scratch beneath Kosmo’s ears. “It isn’t the worst thing I’ve had to endure.”

“Pfft,” Keith scoffs, and she raises her eyes to meet his. It’s subtle, but there’s a light glimmer in his gaze as he grins up at both her and Kosmo. “Stop trying to hide it. You love Kosmo.”

“‘Love’ is a strong word,” she says reproachfully, straightening up.

The corners of Keith’s lips pull up into a small smirk. “Yeah?”

Allura drops her eyes to the floor, feeling her cheeks heat up.  _ Weird. _

“Y-yes, of course it is!” she stammers, her heart hammering fast against her chest. Apparently, throwing around the word  _ love _ while feeling herself wither under Keith’s smug gaze is doing funny things to her insides.

“Whatever you say, Princess,” Keith replies, that self-satisfied smirk still plastered all over his face. “You can keep Kosmo company for as long as you like.”

“What? No!” Allura bends over towards the screen and fixes him with a glare. “That was not part of the compromise. I pet him already. Call your animal back!”

“Have fun,” Keith waves before his video feed disappears and closes in on itself.

Pouting, Allura turns back to face Kosmo.

“You’re enjoying this, too, aren’t you?” she asks dully.

His only response is a deep, booming bark.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hello to me on [tumblr](https://flusteredkeith.tumblr.com) and/or [twitter](https://twitter.com/flusteredkeith)!


End file.
